Kathy Bates cemented herself as one of the greatest actors in history in the early nineties when she was almost two decades into her on-screen career. Somehow, she had remained stuck behind smaller roles for a long time until her incredible gift was realized and put on display for all to see. After her breakthrough, she began to prove herself by winning an Academy Award, two Emmys and two Golden Globes for her work in film and TV.
IMDb scores can compare her five best acting roles to her five worst, taking into both the dramatic film roles the start of her well-established career thrived on, and the more light-hearted later TV roles.
BEST: Midnight In Paris (7.7)
In 2011, Kathy Bates took on one of the more comedic roles her later career became known for. Midnight In Paris is rather artistic for a comedy film and ended up winning an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
She played a fictional version of Gertrude Stein, a writer, poet and art collector who finds herself amongst fictionalized versions of the likes of Salvador Dali and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
WORST: The Effects Of Magic (5.1)
This strange, relatively unknown animated film from 1998 has made very little impact. It hasn’t slipped into cult status and instead is just pretty much forgotten. Bates plays the lead voice-over role: a magical, talking rabbit, which just about sums up how well known this film was.
BEST: Misery (7.8)
It’s actually quite surprising that the definitive Kathy Bates role is so low down on her list. Stephen King’s best novels and tells a story that remains pretty much within one room populated with just two characters.
Bates’ portrayal of Annie Wilkes shot her to fame and is regarded as one of the best acting performances of all time. As such, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and instilled an unmoving fear of her that persists in anyone who has seen the film.
WORST: The Bridge Of San Luis Rey (5.1)
Starring alongside the likes of Robert De Niro and F Murray Abraham, you’d expect The Bridge Of San Luis Rey to have been an immense success. The drama film actually went the exact opposite way and was relentlessly panned by critics, who homed in on its sheer, unfathomably boring presentation.
BEST: Titanic (7.8)
Kathy Bates’ role in Titanic is likely overshadowed by a combination of factors that make the film so famous: James Cameron’s direction, its immense length and box office success and the lead pairing of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
However, she is actually a very prominent character, as she plays one of the historical figures who were very much involved in the real-life story of the Titanic and was looked down upon by her upper-class associates for being too nice.
WORST: Tammy (4.9)
Another of Bates’ recent moves into the comedy gene came in the 2014 Tammy. Mellissa McCarthy decided to co-write, produce and star in the film, which probably gives a fair explanation as to why it was hated by so many. Bates has a relatively important role, but managed to avoid the Razzie nominations bestowed upon her co-stars. Instead, her role was viewed as a fun sideline venture for the actress as a break from her more serious roles.
BEST: American Horror Story (8.0)
truly shambolic seasons and episodes.
The show likes to attach itself to a core cast who return for each season, even though most seasons aren’t related. Kathy Bates made her first appearance in 2013’s Coven, but has returned in each season since. This has led her to play a wide range of characters, from the creepy and evil, to kind and motherly.
WORST: Guilty Hearts (4.8)
Guilty Hearts was always going to struggle to make an impact simply due to its overly experimental approach: it’s a film, but it basically acts as a mini-season of six episodes of a TV show. Bates plays The Judge, the star of the episode ‘The Ingrate’.
BEST: The Office (8.9)
As The Office became a global sensation loved by pretty much everyone around the world, it became capable of attracting some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. One of those ended up being Kathy Bates, who showed up as Jo Bennet, the CEO of Sabre.
Sabre ended up saving Dunder Mifflin from blinking out of existence, but we could never quite work out what we thought about Bennet. She seemed like a kind-hearted and trusting woman, but there was a strange sense of sinister confusion lurking beneath the surface. Did she have a weird ulterior motive? Was she actually quite arrogant and strange? Or was she just like a caring, loving grandmother?
WORST: Summer Heat (4.8)
The only Kathy Bates film on this list that was released before she shot to fame in Misery was Summer Heat. The drama from 1987 cast Bates as Ruth, a character overshadowed by actors who she is now leagues ahead of. It was critically panned for pretty much everything about it, from its direction to its visuals.
